After falling behind in the 2021 World Series 3-1, the team found itself in a spot where it needed to win three straight.
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The Astros checked the first box of that goal by winning Game 5 of the series, thus closing the gap to 3-2, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
If Houston wants to complete this comeback, it’s going to have to win each of the next two contests.
The next step is to win Game 6.
Here are players who need to step up for Houston to make that happen.
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2. Alex Bregman
It has been a quiet World Series for Alex Bregman.
The 27-year-old is batting just .111 and has an ugly OPS of .394.
He’s 2-for-18 with a double.
Fortunately, that double came recently (just two days ago in Game 5), so perhaps he’s on the verge of flipping a switch.
If so, that would be huge for Houston.
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Bregman is typically a solid playoff performer, which we saw during the Astros’ ALDS victory over the Chicago White Sox earlier in these playoffs.
During that series, he batted .375 with an OPS of .882.
He was a massive reason why the Astros were able to clinch that thing in four games.
Houston would love to see that version of Bregman for the remainder of the World Series.
We’ll see if that’s in the cards when Game 6 arrives.
If Garcia shows up and delivers a solid outing, the Astros will have a real chance at forcing a Game 7.
But if Garcia pitches like he did in the early stages of these playoffs (when he had a 24.55 ERA over his first two postseason starts), then Houston will likely be in trouble.